« Live Fast, Die Young »

The book

The story

Level B1

This book is about stars who died young. It is about periods ranging from the 50’s to 2000. Lots of stars, for example Amy Winehouse, Jim Morrison died because of drugs and alcohol.

Let’s talk about the story of Tupac Shakur: Tupac lived in New York. His life was made of incarceration and robbery. Tupac died at the wheel of his car. He was shot and died on his way to the hospital. To me the Tupac’s story is the best because it explains to us how the gang business was going on.

This book explains the evolution of the music and society throughout the century.

Listen to JT ‘s summary (Part 2) :

This book is divided into several periods. All the stories take place in the United States of America. They are about periods ranging from the 50’s to 2000. It explains the history of the music from half of the XX century to the end.

Most stars who are mentioned, didn’t live for a long time: they died very young :

Janis Joplin, a hippie rock star and Jim Morrison died at twenty-seven by heroin overdose.

Kurt Cobain died at twenty-seven too: he shot himself dead.

As for Tupac Shakur, the God of the Rap, he was killed by gunshot in his car at twenty-five.

With the help of this book, we can notice that different types of music varied quickly.

For example, the chapter entitled « California Dreaming » takes place the 60’s. It’s about the hippie generation. Sexual liberation started and the drugs appeared. Young people wanted to change and create a better world. But for this, they took LSD which led them to death and failure.

Another chapter entitled « Gang War on the Street » is about changes. They took place at the beginning of the 90’s. The USA was in a state of panic because of cocaine and crack. Other problems appeared: conflicts, deaths, murders. In 1992, there were 130,000 gang members in Los Angeles. They were Afro Americans, Mexicans or Asians and others.

There are a lot of other periods to discover…

JT

The students’opinion

I think this book can be enriching culturally speaking. It makes us discover new types of music as well as the lives of great singers.

I enjoyed this book because I like old songs and rock’n roll in particular. You should read this book.